Senator Booker Introduces Bill On Slavery Reparations

New Jersey Democratic Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker filed legislation on Tuesday that would form a commission to study the issue of granting reparations to African-Americans.

Booker had previously announced that he would be filing legislation, arguing that some of the country’s “bedrock domestic policies” have “systematically excluded blacks.”

“This bill is a way of addressing head-on the persistence of racism, white supremacy, and implicit racial bias in our country. It will bring together the best minds to study the issue and propose solutions that will finally begin to right the economic scales of past harms and make sure we are a country where all dignity and humanity is affirmed,” Booker said in a statement earlier this week.

“I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country’s policies—rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy—that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap,” Booker tweeted.

I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country's policies—rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy—that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap.https://t.co/5x7bdfncbZ

Booker’s legislation mirrors a bill introduced in the House by Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. It would, if passed, form a commission to study the “impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans” and make recommendations on reparation proposals for descendants of slaves.

1 COMMENT

“SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
To carry out the provisions of this Act, there are authorized to be
appropriated $12,000,000.”
How is 12 million going to pay for anything that will actually change things?